Malta Enterprise and the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, with the support of the Maltese Embassy in Tunisia, have organised a business delegation to Tunisia with the scope of exploring trade and investment opportunities.
The business delegation’s fact finding mission is the first to be held in the country following the revolution which took place earlier this year.
“The initiative, which follows up on the establishment of the Maltese-Tunisian Business Council, will help to strengthen links between the various business organisations, thereby facilitating business opportunities between enterprises of the two countries at such a historical time for Tunisia, where some of the organisations have undergone extensive restructuring to reflect the new reality in the country,” the organisers said in a statement.
Eleven companies involved in a wide variety of sectors in Malta, such as renewable energy, electronics, waste management, education and training, chemicals, as well as construction, project management and building materials, are participating in the business delegation.
As part of their support, Malta Enterprise and the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry lured around 43 Tunisian companies through their networks and pre-arranged over 80 one-to-one meetings, through which some companies found new business contacts and opportunities while others followed up on leads they had explored while preparing for the business delegation.
Participants also had the opportunity to visit a number of major events being held to promote the new trade and investment opportunities Tunisia offers, namely the Tunisian Investment Forum, the Tunis-Medindustrie Fair, and the Fortronic Fair, where they also had the opportunity to network with more companies, not only Tunisian, but also from other countries. Meanwhile, earlier this week Malta Enterprise signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre de Promotion des Exportations de la Tunisie (CEPEX), whereby the two organisations agreed to step up their collaboration with the scope of promoting two-way business relations and trade.
Malta Enterprise and CEPEX shall be exchanging information on trends, as well as trade and investment opportunities in Malta and Tunisia.
Furthermore, they agreed to organise business missions, seminars, training courses and networking workshops in Tunisia and Malta, while seeking to facilitate increased cooperation, synergies and joint ventures between private sector companies in the respective countries, whom they shall also be supporting through networking events.
A concrete action plan for the coming two years shall be discussed in a meeting to be held shortly in Tunis, when Malta Enterprise will discuss a similar Memorandum of Understanding with the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) with a view to exploring feasible ways of collaboration.
While in Tunis, Malta Enterprise is also expected to meet representatives of L’Agence de Promotion de l’Industrie et de l’Innovation to discuss ways how to encourage networking between institutions supporting SMEs in Tunisia and Malta.